Siena Coach Fran McCaffery to be Named Iowa Head Basketball Coach Monday

people might scratch their heads on this one, but at a distance this looks like a decent hire, Siena has done pretty well the last couple of years, and they play a completly different style then what we have seen the last three years, which is nice.

he’s a good hire and I think transfers should be stopped in their tracks when the kids see they’ve got a coach with a little passion.

It’s not

Even when Iowa was “good” we were never that good. McCaffery is still relatively young in coaching terms and it looks like he’s done enough hopping around to finally be content. I’m curious to see how his press conference goes to get a little better feel for him. The last Big Ten coach with Philly roots (Bo) seems to be doing alright.

I didn’t mean to come across as spoiled, and have probably too many good memories of Iowa getting coaches with top level experience (Dr. Tom, Raveling, and even Hayden). I was just hoping against hope that some hot name out there would see the potential in re-building the program at Iowa. Delusional? Yeah. I was just hoping for a bigger “wow” factor. I’m ready to give him a chance. It’s a great opportunity at the top level for him. I just need to remember that for every failed move from mid-major to top level (Lick, Monson, [redacted], etc) there are success stories too (Pearl, Matta, Romar,etc).

He was only head coach for one year. Maybe that was the trick, he wasn’t there long enough for the “Butler curse” to build up like it did for Collier and Lickliter.

not the state. He was recruting against 15 teams that had better programs, better campuses, better histories, better looking girls, and still won. The guy since is averaging 6 wins a season the past two years. And they will not even think about firing him. It is God awful at that program.

This guy is a uniqu combination. He is a street fighter with an Ivy League education. You are going to fucking love this guy’s personality. I expect him to win.

Great line. Although Coach [REDACTED] would like a word with you since the state does have a “basketball school”.

so he qualifies that way too.

but Iowa has not done well with those guys. See Raveling, Olsen, Davis for best recruiting and winning records at Iowa.

The only way to make everyone happy would be to hire somebody who has won a national title within the last 10 or 15 years, and that same coach could not have had much drop-off in winning seasons. Also, perfect morals would have been required (so Pitino is out).

Like you, I am really hoping that means he is not a fraud.

Also, unlike the other two Siena coaches I mentioned, Fran actually won some games in the Big Dance there.

Despite some of the whining that I’ve seen on other boards (what’s really a scream are the comments on what I think is the Albany newspaper… the fans that are bitching are saying many of the same THINGS that I’ve seen our fans piss and moan about for months – AJ/OPS comments about spoiled fans are so on), this guy has won at places with meager resources (now I’ll temper that by noting that often a meager school is in a league that those of us from the Big 10 Would Not Consider Big Time Or Difficult To Win In), he’s been through the rebuilding process and he’s likely had to deal with apathetic fanbases.

One of the realities I think Iowa basketball fans don’t deal well with is this fixation on the part of many fans that we “need a Midwestern guy” at Iowa – not just in basketball, but any sport. There might be some truth to that in wrestling – because a lot of the wrestling universe has revolved around the interior of the US – but in just about everything else its complete bullshit.

Basketball wasn’t really invented by Dr. Naismith, but I think its safe to say that its almost entirely an East Coast sport in the US from a cultural standpoint – historically. Yes, Wooden won at UCLA, and you’ve got buttloads of tradition at Kansas, there’s Gonzaga, Indiana, Purdue, but I really have to scratch my own head to think of many “hot” basketball schools west of the Mississippi River. If you want to win at basketball in Iowa, you’re going to have to reach East to get a good coach, or at least when you throw the dice … yeah, Dr. Tom was from the Midwest, but, he cut his teeth out East.

We don’t have basketball tradition in Iowa, not like what you see in the East Coast major metros, or down in the Carolinas. We have some of the best totally insanely supportive fans on the planet, though, and with no big-time pro teams, there is absolutely no reason we shouldn’t kick ass halfway to the edge of the universe in the major sports as long as we have decent facilities, competitive salaries and good coaches.

The facilities are finally coming in basketball. The football upgrades are coming.

We’ve had three shitty years and years of inflated expectations and disappointments before that… tossing the dice for what looked to be an upgrade, that didn’t work out… and we ended up with a transitional coach that had never built his own program.

And the situation is not nearly as shitty as some may think. TL didn’t work, but… we don’t have the NCAA breathing down our neck, assuming the players stick around, FM has a decent core to work with, they’ll probably be thrilled to be playing uptempo, and he’s got a wife that’s going to torment Ed Hightower. Just for the final point alone, its totally worth it.

I think what jacks me the most about this coach is that he’s built programs, and took ‘em to the Dance, he’s young enough to pull it off again but old enough that if he succeeds here, he’ll retire here – with his wife being a decade+ younger and four young kids, Iowa City is really a perfect place for him to be.

I like the idea of a Philly guy running our program, especially one that went to an Ivy, graduates his players, and at least – at first glance – runs a clean program.

and McCaffery’s team fly. So all things being equal, and I don’t think they are, FM is more fun in getting there.

Fran has made 5 NCAA tourneys.

But I will admit, for being at all small schools, I would like to see Fran’s career winning percentage be better than .587.

to happen.

are better than old $ staying home and having the good seats empty

But, it is a bit depressing to be halfway through the first quarter of a football game and look up and see about 5 rows

Welcome to college sports, friendo. I’ve seen this at PSU, Wisconsin, Michigan, and several other schools just off the top of my head.

Iowa is NOT the mecca of hoops.

They might like it, but they don’t know the game. People know football and wrestling, but they think they know basketball. Have talked to MANY ignorant fans.

we have glaring holes at those positions at Iowa.